Many things in this world are complete mysteries. Like,
why is the sky blue? Why do cows taste so good? Why is prostitution
illegal in most States? And, for the sake of this review,
why are all teachers such bitches and dickheads? Yeah, I've
had a couple of teachers and professors over the years that
I didn't truly hate, but they were nothing outstanding.
The reason I didn't loathe those few individuals was because
they either didn't bury us in homework every night, or,
like the bouncy Ms. Trauly, they let us take pictures of
them naked while riding a horse. In my entire 16 years of
schooling I have never found a teacher who was totally and
completely and ruggedly "cool". One who actually
made me want to go to class just to hang out with him/her.
Well, not until now... And Onizuka Eikichi is fictional.

GTO is the story of a 22 year-old biker/slacker who never
grew up. Onizuka likes to get shit faced every night with
his pals and sit under escalators every day in order to
look up girls' skirts. He likes to beat the living tar out
of troublemakers who give him any lip and then he enjoys
going out looking for 18 year-old tail while cruising on
his hog. But one day inspiration strikes him in a grand
way and he finds a goal in life. That goal being making
it as a high school teacher and finding some cute pigtailed
honey under his tutelage to be his wife... In case you haven't
guessed, this show is most definitely from the land of deviants,
Japan.

Never before has a show grabbed me and shaken me (like
a red-headed stepchild) as GTO has. I watched all 43 episodes
of the anime in less than a week. I just couldn't turn it
off. It was hysterically superfragalosticly funny. It kept
making me wonder what kind of kooky educational plan was
Onizuka going to come up with next. It kept me guessing
as to how the Vice Principal was either going to get smacked
around or how he would plot his pitiful revenge against
the bleached Great Teacher himself. And every new character
that arrived actually added to the overall plot of the series.
It wasn't like any of those pathetic other anime and manga
out there that just throws in a new cast member for the
old ones to interact with when the ideas run low. The overall
feel of GTO in that sense is relative to Urusei Yatsura.
By the end of its run it's got an extremely large cast,
but each and every one of them feels like a member of your
family... that is if you have an enormous and dysfunctional
family.

If I ever find that I have no career paths open to me in
the near (or far) future I plan to follow my new idol, Onizuka's,
example. I'll become a teacher, beat the crap out of my
trouble making students, hit on my cute female coworkers
(who will all fall desperately in love with me no matter
how hard they deny it), blow up my boss' luxury car a few
times, and help the rowdy bastards in my class see the error
of their ways by pushing them off of bridges, buildings
and driving them off of unfinished overpasses on my motorcycle.
Watch out! Great Teacher Rossman is about to be born!!!

What did I think of GTO? In the end I find that I must
give it a 98% out of 100% of Rossman Satisfaction Points.
If only it had done the extra credit, it may have gotten
a perfect score. The only problem that I had with it was
that it was too short. I needed more Onizuka-sensei and
a lot more Kanzaki Urumi. She friggin' ruled!

GTO stands for Great Teacher Onizuka, which is what the
main character intends to be. Onizuka is an ex-motorcycle
gang leader and high school cheat (someone else took his
tests for him), who decides to become a teacher so that
he can make time with pretty young schoolgirls. Educated
mostly on the street, he is a lech, not particularly bright
and rather venial. Not exactly the characteristics which
one would expect to find in a teacher. However, if his buddy
can settle and make something of himself, then he can do
it as well. Besides, how hard can it be to teach?

Surprisingly difficult as he discovers, where the greatest
challenge is overcoming the biases of the faculty for "scum"
like him. Onizuka is a punk and who better to reach out
to the "lost kids" but one of their own kind.
Given that opportunity by perceptive school administrators,
Onizuka comes to realize that he really enjoys teaching
and that he can make a difference, especially to the troubled
youths that remind him of his past. GTO is a story about
bridging the widening gap between disaffected youth and
a society incapable and unwilling to deal with them.

We liked this series. It had a lot of humor and the art
work was really good and done in a realistic style. This
is a story that could easily have gone wrong when presented
as anime. Based on the manga by the same name and written
by Tohru Fujisawa, GTO was published in 1997 by KC Magazine
Shounen Comics and has been running for the last couple
of years. It's been wildly popular in Japan and has even
spawned a series of live action videos. English versions
of the manga have been released by Tokyopop, so if you are
not sure about getting this series, we advise you to check
out the manga. The anime is amazingly faithful to the original
manga, though it somehow manages to make him seem slightly
less perverted and more likable.

Society in the Funhouse Mirror: What GTO Reveals About
Modern Living
GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) is the story of former teen
gang leader turned schoolteacher, Eikichi Onizuka - crass,
prurient, the story claims virginal, with a feeble education
and a penchant for violence - and his transgression from
social scourge to inspired leader.

With as much anime rooted in the obsessive, perverted,
repressed Japanese libido as there is spilling off the shelves,
injecting one with the mainstream Japanese obsession with
the insipid ornaments of street culture would seem to bury
a project in low brow dirt. However, GTO culls this multitude
of grating anime clichés and channels them into a
substantial story about the spoils of urban apathy. Onizuka
is a two-pronged hero - one brand of hero that inadvertently
(and driven at first by residual adolescent angst) shakes
the core of a sterile, regimented society; and the other
that defiantly faces down the mind-numbing fancy of anime
slapstick, brandishing many of the same tools, but also
a heart to boot.

On the surface, GTO's answers to conflict are just as basely
savage as, say, Dragonball Z. Brute force will succeed where
diplomacy, trust and respect fail, although, this isn't
necessarily a bad thing in the world of G.T.O. Workaholic
parents grow loveless; disenfranchised kids gangbang; the
school system slowly atrophies. The show accepts as its
premise that this trio of traits for civilized living has
worn away, leaving exposed the cold gormlessness of modern
society, something that may need a smack in the face.

Which is also what makes the series so funny, and what
infuses meaning into all of the same physical comedy gags
that make something like, say, Amazing Nurse Nanako erroneously
titled. Director Noriyuki Abe has created a distinctive,
but not-jarring, contrast between the rules of GTO's fictional
society and how the comedy of the show offends them (something
that NieA_7 director Tago Sato attempted but failed to pull
off when he paired the wan, empathetic Mayuko with NieA
the sociopath). The humor results from the intersection
of full-fleshed sectors of society, rather than jokes drawn
from a well-spring of hackneyed gimmicks.

Of course, like most anime, subtlety rarely factors into
the show, its sentiments displayed as on its arm as boldy
as Onizuka wears his tattoos. But they are sentiments that
don't ring hollow like the good versus evil trope of less
socially conscious anime - parents have to balance their
professional lives, their romantic lives and the lives they
share with their children; children will fulfill the expectations
placed on them - verbal abuse breeds garbage; people are
hardly ever how they at first appear. Curiously missing
from this list is the futility of violence as a means to
an end, an idea that the show definitely does not embrace
as it dishes out its prescription for hard love on young
punks and acerbic teachers alike. Onizuka gives into his
temper, but he learns to fine-tune his brutishness to focus
on that which seems impossible to excoriate, a skein on
hopelessness.

He is not a great educator, and he is not a great judge
of right and wrong. Great Teacher Onizuka is great because
he has the capacity to care. And, maudlin as that may be,
it's what sets GTO apart from the anime dunces in the corner.

Great Teacher Onizuka is a series that surprised me. Before
I saw this DVD, I had heard what GTO was supposed to be
about: a former street gang member with a colorful history
decides he wants to be a teacher so he can live the easy
life: three months off a year and surrounded by young, impressionable
girls. Having heard this, I pretty much judged the series
immediately (saccharine characters with boring plot elements
and lots of fan service), but when I finally saw it, I found
out how wrong I was (except for the bit about fan service).

GTO succeeds because despite the seemingly (at first) shallow
characters depicted, there is a depth and roundedness to
Onizuka that really carries the series. Eikichi Onizuka
might be a thug or a pervert, but he's a nice guy and deep
down he knows to do the right thing.

Great Teacher Onizuki, or referred to as GTO, began as
your classic manga series, and quickly became a hit. It
in turn spawned not only said anime series, but a live-action
drama series as well. While "sweet christ" passes
your lips, the story revolves around Ekichi Onizuka, a 22-year
old ex-biker gang member with a 2nd degree blackbelt in
karate. For some odd reason, he wishes to become a teacher;
not just A teacher, but "the greatest teacher in japan".
He's crude, foul-mouthed, looks up girls skirts, fantasizes
about being a 40-year old husband with a 16-year old wife,
and has a split-second temper. Beyond all that, however,
he manages to land a job as a teacher at a private academy,
where one needs not to pass a general teaching exam to be
hired. The rest of the formula is simple in execution, but
its results are so varied and wonderful that one can't help
but come to see him as an older brother. Handed the worst
class in japan's history, well, so they say, it's his secondary
duty to quell the corruption that goes on in that class.
Of course the class doesn't appear to look as evil as many
claim, but then it's never that simple in anime. How he
handles suicides, fights and blackmail are all the situations
that test Onizuka as a character.

Before I even watched the fansubs, I read up a bit about
this series, and knew it would be a great series. It doesn't
rely on superb animation or wildly creative plots. In actuality,
the animation is rather basic, taking on more of a manga
style in certain parts. Heavy, thick black lines chalk certain
facial expressions and action sequences. But, it gets the
job done, and that's what is important. In addition, Onizuka
himself is a very visual character: earrings, rides a motorcycle,
and smokes. Plus, his Union Jack styled couch completely
rules. He stands out so much as an enigmatic character,
whether he's screaming or being screamed at. If there is
one aspect of this series that can be difficult to comprehend,
it's the heavy use of cultural references. It's fairly common
for older men to dream of having a wife that's barely legal,
and it's legal to boot. That wouldn't happen here, unless
you lived in West Virginia O_o. He occasionally breaks into
buddhist ornaments and symbolism; thank God kuronekoanime
provided some translation help. It's nothing that detracts
from the story overall, but it's much funnier if understood.

So you like to read manga about many weird and different
things? Well, maybe you do not. If you do, however, GTO
(GREAT TEACHER ONIZUKA) is an amusing if curious story to
read. In many ways GTO is probably rather indicative of
many manga currently being written. It deals with a male
protagonist who leads a rather blessed life in his pursuit
of happiness. Along the way he helps many people around
him and makes the world generally a better place. This is
despite appearing to be quite the irreverent punk that his
character is based on.

So what makes this story enjoyable? GTO is a story revolving
around Onizuka Eikichi. He is a 22 year-old lay-about that
has not discovered his course in life. His favorite word
is "great." Apparently, he has been hanging out
Tokyo for six years trying to find some way to fulfill his
dreams. Up until the story begins he has been running various
part-time jobs, hanging out with gangs and a karate club
for whom he is some sort of star.

Onizuka relates to his buddy why they came to Tokyo in
the first place. Onizuka, a random punk, had wanted to become
a "great" guy. Onizuka realizes that he will never
realize his dream if he does not go for a change of career.
While engaged in one of his favorite preoccupations, staring
up the skirts of girls going up the escalator as he tries
to appear nonchalant, Onizuka meets the person who will
give him his direction. A young girl stops by and accuses
him of staring up her skirt.

She is not put off by Onizuka's act and says that she actually
does not mind. That is why she wears such skirts, after
all. However, in exchange for what he saw, she would like
to be paid with a meal. After feasting well at Onizuka's
expense she begins to ask him what he does for a living.
Onizuka gives nondescript answers which she manages to fill
in for him, such as being a producer for a TV drama, driving
a Porsche, etc. Erika, as we find out she is named, states
that she would be jealous of Onizuka's girlfriend. Onizuka,
totally overcome by his situation, tries to play along as
best as he can, getting himself buried deeper and deeper.
The meal ends with Erika getting Onizuka's pager number
and saying that, the next time they meet, she wants to go
for a drive in his Porsche. Onizuka is left saying himself
"What Porsche!?"

Later, at another karate club meeting, when the boys have
managed to bring in some girls, Onizuka finds enough reason
to leave as soon as possible. While wandering the streets
wondering about the story he wove, he gets a page from Erika
saying that she wishes to meet him. Onizuka resolves to
tell her the truth; that he is no producer nor does he drive
a Porsche. However, he finds Erika crying and Onizuka loses
all resolve in the face of her sadness. He immediately spots
a young well to-do man driving a BMW, talking on his cell
phone. Onizuka immediately offers the guy his Air-Max sneakers
for his BMW, giving the driver little choice. (You will
have to read the manga to see how he got the pair of Air-Max
in the first place.) He drives suavely by Erika, offering
her a ride. In the background the poor driver is left there,
staring with his cell phone by his ear and Onizuka's Air-Max
on his feet. Erika is surprised that he is driving a BMW
instead of a Porsche. Onizuka covers that he actually has
two cars...........

Eikichi Onizuka, former leader of a biker gang and martial
arts champion, wants to be a teacher, mostly because he
wants to have his way with the nubile young minds of high
school girls. In the process of becoming a teacher and getting
started, he has to face blackmail schemes, dysfunctional
families, insane students, and more. Along the way, Onizuka
discovers that smoking, drinking, and swearing, as well
as being violent and under-sexed, might just help make him
the best teacher in his school.

GTO does a great job of depicting the comic side of teaching,
but it also succeeds in switching from comedy to drama in
a heartbeat, and from puerile to serious just as quickly.
Unusual, quirky, and amusing, GTO manages to walk the line
between silly and serious, and produces an Anime title that
works for a wide variety of viewers. Onizuka's office is
hysterical - be sure to notice the statues he adds outside
the door by the stairs.

On the other hand, American audiences might be uncomfortable
with the idea of a physically abusive and sexually predatory
teacher. If viewers can appreciate the fact that Onizuka
does not actually try to seduce any under-age girls, much
less succeed, then perhaps they can appreciate the other
aspects of the title. In fact, when given the chance, Onizuka's
heart of gold shines through, and he ends up helping the
girl in question when no one else could - and leaving her
person unmolested. By no means do I or TOKYOPOP endorse
child abuse, either physical or sexual, but it isn't impossible
to have a fine comedy/adventure that contains such elements
when no children were hurt during the making of the film.
People who are extremely sensitive to such issues, however,
should take warning......

Eikichi Onizuka is a 22 years old and wants to become a
teacher. A graduate from a third rate college, with some
help from his best friend Ryuji, he enrolls in a semester
of student teaching at the local high school. Of course,
his alterior motives are to scope out the hot high school
chick in their uniforms. Something that's on every 22 year
old's mind right? Well, when it comes to actually teaching,
Onizuka draws the worst class in the school and finds out
it's much harder than it seems. With his students blackmailing
him with pictures of him and a female student he befriended,
Onizuka is learning the hard way. his student, on the other
hand, are about to learn something about Eikichi Onizuka.
The man who was once a former bike gang leader, doesn't
take crap from anybody; ESPECIALLY not punks who want to
ruin his chances at becoming a real teacher.

After serving his time student teaching, and missing the
required test for teaching, Onizuka applies for a teaching
job at the Holy Forest Private School. Along the way, he
meets an attractive applicant named Azusa Fuyutsuki and
Onizuka gets off in his own little world of teacher/teacher
affairs and so forth, but when it comes to the actual interview,
Eikichi isn't so lucky. In a strange turn of events and
an exhibition of a picture perfect Karl Gotch German Suplex,
Onizuka is hired for the job by the school's head chairwoman.

Now, the real work begins as Onizuka is hired on to become
the homeroom teacher of the most troublesome class in the
entire school, and his student waste no time in attempting
to oust him from the school. Teaching isn't all it's cracked
up to be, but Eikichi has promised to his students that
he will make school fun for everybody, and Onizuka isn't
one to go back on his promises.

Right off the bat, GTO's hook is it's comedy. Onizuka is
one hilarious guy with the ability to switch between serious
and comedic in an instant. Of course, you know there's more
to him than thar, but that's what hits you straight off.
Of course, the other characters introduced in this volume
add to the appeal. Good, real characters with flaws and
actual situations that shape their character. His best friend
Ryuji, who runs his own bike shop and acts as Eikichi's
voice of reason. Azusa, Onizuka's potential love interest
is a sensitive sort that has a habit of jumping to conclusions,
but is a real sweet woman. The school's odd chairwoman,
and Uchiyamada the vice-principal with the strange love
for Crestas.

Great Teacher Onizuka #1-5: The Journey of a Megalomaniac
"But he looks like a rapist," said I. When I first
saw a picture of Onizuka-sensei.

It turns out that I was evidently mistaken, for he is
a twenty-two-year-old virgin, and probably remains so for
a large part of the series. But of course he evinces fervent
interest in any living creature with two moulds on the chest.
Being constitutionally lazy, methinks most things he does
are merely ornamental, even in cases where he happens to
be manhandling the problems of the teenagers under his charge
by the neck. It's easy to mistake mooning about for real
heroism in this sort of manga, though it must be said that
it is a scathing satire of Japanese society. You don't have
to relish all his sick jokes, but they are all the byproduct
of life in recessional Japan.

Great Teacher Onizuka, not to be confused with Mitsubishi's
motorcar GTO, is a miracle man of sorts who utilizes seemingly
baneful ruses to reform young persons on the brink of revenge
suicide, among other things. Considered a failure of society
himself, he mixes and stews with problematic youngsters
who are a little slow in the head to attend the best schools,
or the best class in a fifth-rate school for that matter.
Sufficient to say, there are many insurmountable oppositions
that he has to contend with. The dialogue of this manga
is fairly sharp, which leaves me wondering if the English
translation thereof even comes near to rendering in full
those cultural nuances that belong to Japan and Japan only.

You realize that I think that the manga is outrageously
hilarious only because I am no longer in high school.

Onizuka wants to be a High School teacher for two reasons:
One: to help kids out Two: .... to look at hot babes all
day long!!! Of course, there is no place for a teacher like
that in a school, or is there. Onizuka has a bad temper,
and when he gets pissed, you better not mess with him. Lucky
for him there's a need for a "problem" solver.

Onizuka ends up with every bad class in every school it
is. He has a nack for helping children that seem to be over
violent, or mischievious.

Ultimately, throughout the 4 episodes we learn that not
only is Onizuka a pervert, and that he has a very dark past,
but that he is also caring and apparently a very good teacher.
You'll love all the sexual innuendos and references made
like video game freaks. There's a scene where some student
manipulate photos of Onizuka in a sexual way. Parents beware,
there is no nudity, but take the over 13 age to heart, unless
you want to answer some pretty sticky questions.

Just like Onizuka, with his shady past, the animation can
be shady at times. Some times you'll fall in love with the
character, while other times, you'll wonder who drew it.

Unlike most anime who choose to use the ultra simplified
faces for comic relief, GTO takes a change to the more realistic,
giving the song "I think I'm turning Japanese"
new meaning.

You might recognize one Spike Spiegal as Onizuka, (we really
should learn these actors' names) which is just a joy to
listen to. In addition, the supporting cast can't be definitively
called all stars but they certainly get the job done the
way any anime fan would like.
The first double episode really pushes the dvd into a whole
new level. You get 4 episodes, but it'll feel like 5. If
that wasn't enough, the menu design by Nightjar makes you
just want stare at it all day long, increasing the value
rating.

This series has a ton of potential, it's hilarious, ultimately
has a good point. This is just the kind of show that could
take over a prime time slot on a network if anyone had that
kind of juevos. Since that won't happen you owe it to yourself
to see what should be an instant classic. This one will
definitely have you rolling.

Volume 2:-
Why anyone who has seen the first DVD would even need to
read the review of the second is beyond me.

A quick look at the back of the DVD will give you a pretty
good overview as to what happens in the anime. If you watched
the first DVD, then you'll already have a basic understanding
of how each episode will go down. However, this is where
Onizuka separates itself from every other B anime out there.

Great Teacher Onizuka finally gets those awful girls back
for bullying their classmate, by taking pictures of them.
Of course, he gets in trouble and in typical perverted Onizuka
fashion, he gets out of it with a little help from some
unlikely classmates.

Following that incident it time for the parent visit. One
question? What's the worst thing that could happen from
someone meeting your mother? That's right! Murai is desparate
to stop Onizuka from meeting his Mom, and all indication
is that Onizuka wants what Murai thinks he wants. It's no
surprise however, the Onizuka is up to ... good.

Finally, Onizuka save Murai from some thugs, and outswims
the PE teacher in hilarious fashion.

Sometimes you'll question the casting choices of some of
the supporting characters, in particular, the girls, however,
overall GTO features a stellar soundtrack and cast.
Getting 4 episodes is usually enough for a good score here
at Otaku Revu. Especially with alot of companies putting
3 episodes now. However, when you get 5 episodes or more
for the same price as a 4 episoder, you really have feel
good about the purchase. In addition, the menu system and
extras make it feel even better.

If you don't know by now, you better ask somebody. This
is one great series, about one great teacher. Onizuka is
simply too funny, and too good of a series to pass up. This
is one the whole family 13 and over can enjoy.

Volume 3:-
What's in store for Great Teacher Onizuka this volume? More
children trying to get him fired? Yep, and everyone else
too.

This DVD starts what appears to be a larger story arc.
When Onizuka helps out Nomura after she's been shunned by
her classmates, he sets her up to participate in a pop star
contest, which reveals Nomura's feeling to her once best
friend. Following this event the math teacher, who secretly
stalks Fuyutsuki, tries to get him fired by having him take
the equivalent of the SAT. Onizuka then enjoys a full episode
of studying with Fuyutsuki, and has problems controlling
all his somewhat demented urges.

More characterization really endears these characters to
you. You'll learn more about the students and their great
teacher. In fact, with this DVD it's official, this is the
single best Teacher/Student genre film/series ever.

As stated in earlier reviews. Onizuka won't win awards,
but it does its job just fine in the animation dept.

Sometimes you'll question the casting choices of some of
the supporting characters, in particular, the girls, however,
overall GTO features a stellar soundtrack and cast.
Five episodes yet again, make this purchase soo much easier.

At first this series seemed like another crazy character
teaches about life anime, but it has ended up being one
of the best reasons to be an anime fan in 2002.

You'd think that Onizuka could find enough trouble by simply
working at a high schoool, but apparently trouble finds
him, all too easily. This DVD picks up where the last one
ended. Onizuka breaks up a little brat's kidnapping, ruining
his chance at passing the test. If you know Onizuka though,
then you know he passes in the end much to everyone's dismay.
Not to mention he passes out from being shot.

The next few episodes feature Onizuka battling Urumi, another
spoiled student who holds his future in her hands. She forces
him to buy a large sushi dinner with no cash, in one of
the serie's most hilarious moments. After some fun with
Onizuka, it's finally revealed that she really DOES want
attention, and her bomb threats are much more serious than
it would seem.

The five episodes are truly great, and if you've been watching
this long, then you know you'll enjoy every minute. Nothing
has changed in the animation or soundtrack department, but
this series is one of the few so well written that it doesn't
matter.

Competing with only Hellsing as the single best series
release of last year (2002), Great Teacher Onizuka is certainly
well worth the money to watch.